


In The Sea

by Jashasedai



Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Gen, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-18
Updated: 2017-08-18
Packaged: 2018-12-17 02:05:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11841702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jashasedai/pseuds/Jashasedai
Summary: Valtteri told the press his plans for the summer break in the F1 season included beer and sauna.Then he learned why everyone keeps their plans a secret.- because Sebastian Vettel will invite himself along.





	In The Sea

**Author's Note:**

> The 5 words I was given for this assignment were: mojito | zamboni | humid | warmth | asleep

**In The Sea**

 

He understood, now, why everyone kept their summer plans vague in interviews.

Sebastian Vettel invited himself along, to Valtteri's plans of sauna and beer. It went without saying, and it HAD gone without saying, that this invitation included Kimi Raikkonen. And Kimi rejected out of hand Valtteri's plan of staying at his own home.

"We will all go to my house at Porkkala," Kimi said, "That will be better." He stood partway between the two other men like Valtteri was going to grab Sebastian and run.

Valtteri put his hands in his pockets and shuffled his feet. "I was just going to stay at home and relax."

"Don't be ridiculous." Sebastian waved a hand at him.

He sighed, there was really no winning. "I'll tell Nico we're going to Kimi's house, then." He said, pulling out his phone.

Kimi and Sebastian turned to look at him.

"Nico?! Which Nico?" Kimi demanded.

"Nico. Rosberg." Valtteri stopped paging through his contacts.

"You're inviting Princess to my house?"

"It's his vacation, Kimi, he can bring a friend," Sebastian said, magnanimously.

Valtteri reddened. Until half an hour ago it had been his vacation, which he and Nico had been planning since before the calendar was announced. Beer and sauna at Valtteri's house. Now it was no longer at his house, and he was being PERMITTED to bring the other person whose vacation it was.

"Alright, tell him he has to make mojitos," Kimi said.

So here they were, unpacking in Kimi's house. Valtteri pulled out the carton he'd packed the beer in. He and Nico planned to drive up together, but then Sebastian's flight had come in at the same time as Valtteri was picking Nico up and the three of them all came together, Sebastian and Nico talking at a rapid pace the whole time. Valtteri barely got to talk to Nico at all.

"Look," He showed Nico the beers he'd chosen for the week. It had been a hassle to buy extra of the single brew beers for Kimi and Seb, but it would be rude to leave them out.

Nico was one of the few people who shared Valtteri's love of really great beers. He owned another collection of great brews, but couldn't bring them on the plane, so he'd come with only his carryon.

"These are great, we're really going to have some fun." Nico didn't mention the change in venue and party size. Valtteri thought that was nice of him.

"Come on, you guys, it's time for the sea!" Sebastian leaned into the guest room, hanging on the door frame, already wearing Ferrari red shorts and flip-flop sandals.

"We were going to go for a sauna," Valtteri started.

"Sea now, sauna later." Kimi stood in the doorway with his hands on his hips.

"The sea sounds alright. We'll have lots of time for sauna, later." Nico smiled and put his hand on Valtteri's shoulder, sensing he needed this.

They all went out to the sea and dove off the dock. It reminded Valtteri of those pictures of the old Redbull parties when Sebastian and Mark used to end up in the water in their Nomex coveralls. He wondered if Sebastian ever missed that side of Mark. He watched him swim, and decided that no matter what, Sebastian would rather be teammates with Kimi.

Then there was Nico.

Nico and Mercedes.

Mercedes and Nico.

Nico and Lewis and Mercedes.

Except now it was Valtteri and Lewis and Mercedes.

Nico was floating in the water with his blonde hair brushed back. He swam over to Valtteri and they floated around the side of the dock from the two Ferrari drivers.

"I'm sorry the vacation changed so much," Valtteri started, at the same time as Nico said, "How are you settling in with the team?"

Nico waved at him to go on.

"I told the media what I was doing for my break and then Sebastian came and suddenly I was agreeing to him coming along, and then everyone started talking and here we are."

"Kimi wants me to make my famous mojitos," Nico laughed. "So much for beer and sauna, instead we've got mojitos and the sea."

"It's going to rain." Kimi had swum around the side of the dock to them. He was looking at the sky. "The wind is blowing from east instead of west."

Valtteri looked at the trees across the sea. "You're a pretty good judge of weather for a guy from Helsinki, but out here the rain comes from the south."

"I know the weather at my own house, it's going to rain, soon, we should go in." Kimi hauled himself up onto the dock. He'd taken his shirt off to swim, and Valtteri could see the scars from his back surgery a few years before. The one that had cost him his second Championship. His comeback Championship.

The strangest things could happen. Things you would never expect.

Nico had lost a Championship to strange circumstances, too. Valtteri had heard people whisper that Mercedes had given it to Lewis intentionally, but anyone who thought that didn't understand how desperately hard an F1 team worked to win. They would do their best to win.

"Kimi! I don't want to go in. It's still nice out."

"Do what you think is best, Sebi," He called over his shoulder as he walked up the dock.

"Well I'm getting cold. I'm going to go in and start making those drinks." Nico hauled himself up onto the dock and jogged after Kimi, only to walk silently beside him up the path to the house.

Valtteri hadn't wanted to come down to the sea, but he didn't want to make Kimi think he agreed with him about the rain. Rain came from the south. So he swam with Sebastian, until the sky clouded over and got dark.

"Maybe we should go inside," Sebastian scrubbed his wet hair with a hand. "I'm feeling raindrops."

"Rain comes from the south," Valtteri said.

The ripples on the water were hard to deny, though, and they both climbed up onto the dock just as a bolt of lightning divided the dim afternoon sky in half. The thunder came a couple seconds later, and the sky opened like a hopper and dumped rain on them.

If they hadn't been still soaking from the sea, they would have been by the time they ran to the end of the dock. It was colder than the sea water, too. They raced up the path to the house. Kimi was standing just under the overhang with a big, fluffy towel that he wrapped around Seb's shoulders. A second towel was waiting on the arm of the couch for Valtteri. He dried himself off and went into the guest room to change.

The rain had made the air humid, and it was cool with the fans running. Valtteri threw on a tshirt and pants and went back out into the main room. Sebastian was cuddled up under a blanket on the couch. Kimi was sitting beside him, murmuring that he shouldn't have stayed out in the water so long.

Nico was in the kitchen making drinks. He was wearing a thick cardigan that looked hand knit. "I'm not making mojitos, yet. It's too cold. I'm making lemon sizzlers. They're like a mojito, but hot. I brought you out a sweater. I knew you wouldn't have packed one." He pointed a long metal spoon towards the chair by the bar. It had a blue jumper on it.

Valtteri pulled it on. It was soft, and with it's warmth came a familiar smell. It looked new, but smelled like Nico's cologne.

He sat at the bar and watched his friend make hot lemon drinks. They tasted good, but burned with alcohol. Not beer, but very good. They all went for a sauna. Kimi and Valtteri laughed at the Germans when they had to leave early because of the heat. They had more lemon sizzlers and drifted away to their own rooms.

Valtteri fell asleep to the sound of rain.

The next morning the wind had shifted direction again, and it was hotter than it had been the day before. They all went out to the sea for a morning swim.

Nico took a mask and snorkel and tooled around looking at the fish. As he circled around away from the dock towards the side of the garage, he let out a noise of alarm. 10 yards from shore, he suddenly stood up, mostly out of the water. "Kimi!" He called. "What the hell is this doing here?"

"What is he standing on?" Sebastian asked.

"That's the zamboni," Kimi said.

Valtteri's eyebrows went up a little.

"Come on," said Kimi, he started swimming out to Nico.

Sebastian and Valtteri followed him.

As they drew closer, they could see Nico was standing on a rusted out, originally white painted, cab of a zamboni. It was resting on a sandbar in the sea, and was only a bit more than a meter underwater.

"How did this get here?" Nico asked again.

Kimi and Valtteri climbed up on it next to him.

Sebastian shook his head. "I'm not going on that, one of you is going to cut your foot and get tetanus."

"Toni Vilander and I got drunk one night and brought it here from a hockey rink downtown. I don't remember how we got it home. I woke up and found it in the drive. Toni said we stole it and it was the slowest car chase ever, but that we smoothed all the pits and ridges in the road and a few small cars on the way home. We couldn't figure out what to do with it, so we pushed it in the sea."

How drunk you would have to be to steal a zamboni, and then still be drunk by the time you got it home? They went only slightly faster than a walking pace.

"Anyway," Kimi said. "It turned out we bought it."

Nico and Sebastian burst out laughing, and Valtteri smirked.

They all turned at the sound of a truck pulling into the drive.

"Look! It's here!" Nico smacked Valtteri in the arm and dove into the water, swimming for shore.

It was one of those franchise delivery trucks and Nico, calling to the driver over the water, caught the man's attention. By the time the other three had reached the dock, Nico was signing on a clipboard beside the refrigerated truck. The delivery man brought out a chilled box and set it on the edge of the dock. He waved at Sebastian a little desperately, and they all signed his tshirt.

"I couldn't bring these on the plane, so I had them shipped." Nico opened the box. Inside were a few dozen different types of beers from his collection. They were frosty and the bottles started sweating immediately.

"Hot sun and cold beer!" Sebastian said. "The perfect combination."

They each took a bottle and drank.

"This is great beer. I like great beer," Kimi said, examining the label on his bottle.

"Me too." Sebastian said.

Unexpected things weren't always bad things.

The hot sun and the cold beer, and more friends than he'd expected, made Valtteri happy.

**Author's Note:**

> Real People do not belong to me. This story is a work of fiction.


End file.
